My 9 month old is not crawling properly yet. He uses his right elbow as his steering wheel, then drags his body across the floor. He can pull himself up onto his knees,in front of furniture, then sits on his haunches. How can I help him to crawl on hands & knees? I think it would be most beneficial for his brain.
i am probably not the right person to answer this but my daughter didn’t really crawl properly either. she is walking beautifully now. i think that it really depends on the child. some children are just more sedentary. also, it might be the diapers as i think was the case with us. we used these really bulky cloth diapers that restricted movement somewhat. i tried rocking her and stimulating, but nothing worked, she would sort of sit on her butt and jump using her arm as a lever. in any case, i don’t think that it matters all that much. sorry for not offering any more concrete things, but really, it’s not such a big deal.
I have been trying to convince my son to get up off his tummy for months now. He is absolutely resolute that pulling himself along on his belly and crossing his ankles so that he only ever has his right foot on the floor is the only way to go. I have tried rocking him, geting him on all fours etc. but the moment I stop holding him in that position, he slides straight back onto his belly. I think it may be in part to his cloth nappies, but even when he is bare bottomed or in disposables he shows zero interest in getting up off the floor.
According to my mother, not one of the five of us crawled ‘properly’ and the opinion in my family is that once babies have found a way that works for them, they generally aren’t interested in further refinements!
I am also concerned that he is not developing any kind of cross-pattern anything, pulling forward simultaneously with both arms and using only one foot, but I can’t convince him otherwise and have been trying nearly six months! He is not even pulling up on anything! We have an appointment with his physiotherapist in a couple of weeks (he gets checks every few months because he was premature) and I’ll let you know if she has any advice to get him on his hands and knees.
I wouldn’t worry too much. Encourage him but don’t stress if he isn’t doing is (your stress will only upset him and make him less likely to succeed). If he wants to, he will. Probably when you least suspect it 
You really can’t force anything. Typically once a child is strong enough they will abandon crawling for creeping because it is more efficient. It takes a lot of strength to get there though. Has he ever seen anyone creep? If not you may need to model it for him, he may not even know it’s possible.
Also if a child skips creeping and starts walking having only crawled (or not even that much), they can still creep (or crawl) at any time. While it’s better, from what I’ve read, that it be done in order, what is lost by skipping creeping can be regained simply by creeping more later.
My son went through 3 different crawling styles, a neither crawling nor creeping style, and two creeping styles before he decided walking (and later running) was the best form of transportation. I do not think he made it up to the number of yards of creeping recommended by Doman before he started walking, but he still creeps sometimes (particularly up stairs) so I know he’s still getting that benefit.
More floor time is really the only suggestion I can give. At 9 months a child should be having at least 3 hours 15 minutes of floor time per day (according to my son’s Dr.), Well before 9 months, if he was not sleeping or eating, my son demanded to be on the floor exploring. If your son isn’t that excited about floor time, you’ll need to find a way to make it exciting with toys, or books, or just yourself. Encourage movement as much as possible. Give him things worth crawling towards. Etc.